The bill’s sponsor says it is aimed at helping people who think they have an addiction issue and do not want to allowed inside dispensaries. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
People could volunteer to be on a list barring them from entering dispensaries or buying cannabis products under a newly proposed bill in the Legislature.
The measure is similar to a state program that launched in 2001 allowing people to self-exclude from entering casinos to address gambling addictions, said bill sponsor Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic).
“If somebody had an issue with cannabis in the past or other addiction, they recognize the problem and went through recovery, they could self-exclude themselves from being able to go into cannabis dispensaries,” said Polistina.
Cannabis retailers in New Jersey are required to check IDs of anyone trying to enter. Once dispensary staff verify the ID and that the person is over 21 years old, they can enter the retail floor. The ID is typically checked again while making the purchase.
Under the bill, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission would be tasked with creating a process for people to be placed on — and removed from, if they wish — a list of people prohibited from entering all cannabis retail shops. The commission would also provide guidance to retailers on how to remove self-excluded people from targeted advertising and mail.
Under the bill, anyone would be able to add themselves to the self-exclusion list, which would be exempt from public disclosure. You would not be able to add someone else to the self-exclusion list.
New Jersey’s self-exclusion from online and in-person gambling is enforced by the state Attorney General’s Office. That self-exclusion period can last one year, five years, or a lifetime.
Bill Caruso, a cannabis law lawyer involved in the November 2020 ballot initiative that legalized recreational cannabis, said he generally supports the goal of the bill to protect people from harm, but doesn’t see a need for it. He said he hasn’t heard any major concerns of people getting addicted to marijuana or losing their life savings because they’re buying too much cannabis.
“Could we do it? Sure. The bigger question here is why, because we haven’t seen this overt harm that’s been created because of the legalization of marijuana,” Caruso said.
He also noted this would add to the list of duties for the state’s cannabis agency. He wants to see it focus on other priorities like expanding the production of edibles , licensing consumption lounges, and taking on the hemp industry.
A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment.
Bob Zlotnick is the executive director of Atlantic Prevention Resources and works with people who are recovering from addiction. Zlotnick said with new dispensaries opening weekly, they can be too convenient and too tempting to people who are in active recovery and may not know that using cannabis could lead them back to their initial drug of choice.
People who come out of 12-step and narcotics anonymous programs or rehabilitation centers should have the same opportunity to self-exclude as gamblers do in casinos, he said. The system could be easily executed because of the ways dispensaries are set up, he noted.
He said the intent of the bill is to bring awareness to people that may be confronted with temptation, and not to stop people who want to use cannabis in their recovery or to help them with symptoms of opioid use disorder.
“Someone could, just on a whim, go into one of these stores and lose a month, nine months, two years, five years of sobriety or clean time that they didn’t really intend to lose — they just maybe wanted to go in and look,” Zlotnick said.
The bill must face a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee before moving forward.
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